Research from the London Communications Agency has shown that 34 per cent of councillors said they were tweeting or blogging at least once a fortnight.

Agency director Luke Blair called the figures 'encouraging' but said that more still needed to be done.

Pointing to the recent trend of council cuts impacting on comms budgets, he also suggested frontline social media engagement would be increasingly important: 'It's a relatively cheap, effective way of reaching out to people, and something that should be encouraged by comms teams.'

Local Government Association comms head David Holdstock pointed to recent ComRes findings in which the overwhelming majority of councillors said social media were here to stay.

'It's really important that councillors are engaging with their residents in ways that suit them,' he added.

Other findings from the LCA's research and Blair's reaction to the report can be read in this week's online public sector column.